KIS Approach to Data Management for Oil and Hazardous Material Response

On August 28^th, 2012 Hurricane Isaac made landfall on the lower peninsula of the state of Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River. With observed winds of 70 mph (119 km/h), the slow moving storm lingered in the area more than 24 hours, delivered devastating rainfall across four states and submerged multiple low lying parishes of Louisiana with an 11.0 ft. (3.4 m) storm surge. Numerous oil/gas production facilities and remote municipalities within the coastal zone were inundated for days following this natural disaster as flood waters receded. As a direct result, a FEMA mission assignment under Emergency Support Function 10 (Oil and Hazardous Material Response) was issued to mitigate hundreds of orphaned containers with potentially hazardous contents deposited throughout the 3200 square mile impacted area of coastal Louisiana. Lower Louisiana has a burgeoning petrochemical industry. Possible hazardous materials encountered within orphan containers included all chemicals associated with petroleum and natural gas production to include above ground storage tanks capable of holding tens of thousands of gallons of oil.

The response was managed through the use of the Incident Command System (ICS). A Unified Command consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LADEQ) was established. The Unified Command was supported by , National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), , local Oil Spill Response Organization, EPA contractors and other Federal, State and Local personnel.

Response operations within the area of operation were dynamic and challenging. Logistically, the lower peninsula of Louisiana could only be accessed via a two lane highway which added significant travel time to land based scouting/recovery operations. Environmentally, most areas significantly impacted were sensitive marshland ecosystems which required careful evaluation and consultation with Natural Resource Trustees to ensure net ecological benefit from removal activities. Politically, the area of operation spanned multitudes of state, local and federal jurisdictions which required careful navigation to ensure all represented agencies interests were protected.

Operationally, response activities were executed with restricted purchasing power. The FEMA Mission assignment contained specific guidance to minimize extraneous purchases in an effort to keep overall state cost shares low and the operation within budget. In light of budget concerns, response teams faced with geographically challenging logistics and tasked with recovering targets half buried in hazardous debris fields or sensitive wetlands leveraged non-traditional recovery techniques (to include airboats) to maximize efficiency. Meticulous preoperational planning employing good data management practices was also used to ensure a target was only addressed once and multiple trips were not necessary to mitigate known hazardous containers. To tackle data management for this response, the team decided to “keep it simple” and leverage off-the-shelf intuitive options to manage all associated data.

Response operations were organized using ICS with members of the Unified Command (UC) composed of personnel from USCG, EPA and LADEQ. The Operational Planning Period was 24 hours with Information Management Unit (IMU) placed under the supervision of the Planning Section Chief (PSC) and staffed utilizing LADEQ personnel with prior GIS experience. The PSC monitored, evaluated and approved all data management and directed the timely collaboration between personnel to ensure mission success. Collaboration was executed through joint briefs and debriefs surrounding each operational period including the PSC, Operations Section Chief (OSC) and recovery branch personnel actively incorporating current sources of information to effectively assess the status of operations.

Prior to operations, representatives of the UC conducted a Data Quality Objectives (DQO) meeting where each agency consolidated individual agency requirements for information. Subsequently, a paper based intuitive system of tracking individual HAZMAT orphan containers was established for common reference and accountability between agencies. Finally, with assistance from NOAA, a field data collection form representing the agreed upon DQOs was generated for use in the field. The Field Data Collection Form emphasized overall simplicity to expedite data collection. Specifically, numbers and letters entered into the first four columns signified the Recovery Branch Task Force, date, container number and parish where the container was collected. When combined, these individual values created the unique identifying code by which a container can be historically referenced.

Field Data Collection Forms were collected following each operational period, a copy was provided to the IMU for incorporation into the database and a hard copy kept as a back-up log of activity.

Agencies involved in the response all had access to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft ACCESS software. Considering ease of access and no cost incurred for use, these were the database management tools identified for the response. Hard copy field data collection forms were provided to IMU data entry personnel at the safety tail gate briefing at 0600 for each operational period. Data entry personnel then manually entered previous operational period field data in the database and cooperated with LADEQ Geographic Information System (GIS) personnel to translate the information for visual display by 1000 each day. For planning/operational purposes, data was extracted from the database and manipulated separately by the PSC or OSC to mine pertinent data without the possibility of compromising the database of information. Most importantly, Microsoft ACCESS was used consistently through the response which ensured continuity and quality of aggregated information.

Recovery Branch Task Forces were equipped for routine oil spill & HAZMAT recovery operations. A ‘target’ (considered an individual HAZMAT container) was either ‘REM’ (Removed for Disposal), LIP-RP (Left in place responsible party identified) or LIP-C/SP (Left in place – special operations required for removal or container found empty). Accounting for targets in this manner, allowed teams to simultaneously collect data on completed operations, forecast requirements for future operations and identify targets which would be transferred to another agency for monitoring of disposition; all of which could be sorted or represented in a database for quick reference. Field data was transferred into the database by the IMU, cross referenced to status colors of green (REM), yellow (LIP-C/SP), red (LIP-RP) and other field data. Using LADEQ GIS personnel, the CSV format of the database was imported to create a KMZ of the data and returned the Command Post for operational planning. The most time consuming part of this process was manual data input of the IMU (occasionally taking 4 hours) into the database.

The dynamic and large area of the response posed unique challenges when evaluating end points for the mission. The unified command needed a way to divide the large AOR into smaller more manageable areas to track progress with respect to different jurisdictions. In response, with the assistance of NOAA, a 3 min 45 sec alpha numeric grid was overlaid on the operational area. Squares were assigned transparent color statuses of red (outstanding targets), yellow (pending removal operations or other activities) and green (closed for response activities with UC concurrence). Colors were assigned considering all targets within each area, treated as a status board to track progress within each subset of the operational are and the operation as a whole. Once operations within an area, or group of areas were evaluated to be complete, the UC was briefed on the progress and a decision memo was signed by the UC to end operations within that area.

Specialized equipment is difficult and expensive to replace on a response. Consumer grade equipment can be counted on to perform and generally is easily replaced if broken/lost. Recently, many consumer electronics manufactures have been merging hardware capabilities and offering hybrid products at reasonable price points. Task Force personnel for this response utilized hybrid camera/GPS handheld devices which geo-tagged photos, recorded historical positions and allowed for note taking on the unit. Utilization of this handheld device consolidated field information in one location reducing the amount time needed for the IMU to download and process data. This improved the timeliness of situation updates and efficiency of operational planning.

Google Earth was utilized as the common GIS Software for this response. The intuitive nature of the software, ease of access for involved agencies, robust tools and universally accepted GIS file formats of KML & KMZ were the primary factors when making this decision. Procedurally, after operations were complete for the day, the PSC and OSC would debrief Task Force Leaders in a darkened room with Google Earth displayed on an overhead projector. Personnel would review operational tasking for the day, available information from newly generated layers, available geo-tagged photos in addition to any new information that required immediate consideration for the next operational planning period. Utilized in this manner, GIS Software is well suited for work analysis and provided an excellent visual representation of work accomplished for the response.

GIS software enabled response personnel to overlay pertinent information for comparison and problem solving. Response personnel leverage this advantage by combining a data overlay developed by Louisiana State University which modeled storm flood waters, compared to Louisiana State maps of Federal & State levee systems and cross referenced overflight data to identify the largest areas of debris accumulation. Because orphan containers tend to float up with flood waters, these areas of debris accumulation were identified as priority for clearance. Utilizing the ‘time slider’ function in Google Earth, some orphan containers were determined to be preexisting and out of the scope of the ESF mission assignment. Specifically, responders would review satellite imagery prior to the date of landfall in an attempt to locate the container in question. If the container was identified in the satellite imagery taken at a time predating the hurricane, the UC agreed that this was tangible proof that the abandon/orphan container had been in its reported locations for many years prior to the Hurricane Isaac making landfall and outside the scope of the ESF mission.

Efficient flight planning significantly reduced overall costs for this response. Utilizing State storm flood water modeling information and maps of Federal & State levee systems, members created methodical flight plans for pilots which included planned waypoints presented in a logical/efficient progression, requested air speed and altitude. During preflight briefs, response personnel discussed the type of targets they were searching for, marking techniques (including physically circling targets rather than hovering) and expected the endurance of the flight given weather conditions. Aerial observers were outfitted with DLSR cameras capable of geo-tagging photos for later review. Responders were trained that 10+ megapixel DSLR properly set to autofocus would take pictures which contain more information than the human eye could gather and a human being could document in the same amount of time. Large angle geo-tagged photos of debris fields or other areas of interest were then analyzed after the fact by personnel in the Command Post. Utilizing this process, less time was needed for over flights and more time could be spent on identifying individual targets throughout the entire area of operation.

The Unified Command began with the end in mind: : the requirement to assess and mitigate hundreds of orphaned hazardous material containers throughout a large area with a limited response budget, and understanding that a major challenge in oil or HAZMAT response is data management and timely collaboration of data. The team decided to “keep it simple” and leveraged off-the-shelf, inexpensive and intuitive options to manage the response data. This approach reduced the amount of overhead, support personnel and increased the efficiency of operational planning and field operations. Utilizing common off-the-shelf technology and designing intuitive data collection forms ensured that the average responder could effectively and efficiently collect quality data. Centering all response data and operational progress on a common information viewer (Google Earth) was the key to completing the mission assignment weeks ahead of schedule and several hundred thousand dollars under budget.